Trump Nominates Top Wall Street Lawyer to Police Wall Street

In the latest example of Donald Trumpnominating foxes to guard the henhouse, the president-elect’s transition team on Wednesday announced the nomination of Sullivan & Cromwell partner Jay Clayton to succeed Mary Jo White as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Who is Jay Clayton? According to Trump, he is “a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial institutions can thrive and create jobs while playing by the rules at the same time.” And because he’s been nominated by Trump, who spent his campaign painting Wall Street in general and Goldman Sachs specifically as Satan incarnate, only to turn around and hire everyone from the bank, it should come as little surprise that Goldman has been one of Clayton’s top clients. Here are a few other points of note:

(1) He will probably not make strengthening regulation a hallmark of his tenure. According to Trump, Clayton has been hired to help “undo many regulations which have stifled investment in American businesses, and restore oversight of the financial industry in a way that does not harm American workers.”

(2) He co-authored a paper that suggested the U.S. be less zealous in its enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in part because the way the federal government polices and prosecutes bribery is too unpredictable and expensive.

(3) He has, like the majority of Trump appointees, no experience working in government.

(4) He has spent his career representing Wall Street, including Barclays in its acquisition of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Morgan Stanley’s Global Oil Merchanting division, and Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase.

Mr. Clayton represented Goldman when it received a $5 billion investment from billionaire Warren Buffett’s company during the peak of the credit crisis in September 2008, according to his bio on Sullivan’s website. He’s also represented Goldman in connection with other investments and acquisitions, according to the law firm. Sullivan is a key outside legal adviser for Goldman and is more closely associated with Wall Street than perhaps any other law firm.

You hear that? That’s the sound of Hillary Clinton, sitting alone in front of her laptop, playing that clip of Trump saying that she couldn’t be president because Goldman Sachs has “total control” over and over on loop.

Clayton responded with aplomb to the task of regulating the same industry in which he has worked for decades. “I want to thank President-elect Trump for the opportunity to serve as SEC Chairman,” he said in a statement. “If confirmed, we are going to work together with key stakeholders in the financial system to make sure we provide investors and our companies with the confidence to invest together in America. We will carefully monitor our financial sector, as we set policy that encourages American companies to do what they do best: create jobs.”